Hide and Seek
by Shauds02
Summary: Cass used to play a game a lot like hide and seek when she was younger. Sometimes it's hard to remember that the games she plays now are different.


It had always been her least favorite game, long before she'd had words for things like that.

She couldn't see, not any of the times they'd played the game, the dark hiding game. He'd put something over her eyes and let her go, sometimes in a place with sharp sticks that dug into her feet, sometimes in places where the ground was smooth, sometimes hot, sometimes cold. It didn't matter; it was always the same game.

She ran, always, because she didn't know how much time she had before he would come looking for her and the farther she got the longer it would take for him to find her. He would find her, always did it wasn't about trying to get away from him forever, that had never been a possibility in her mind.

Searching out a place that felt quiet and closed off where she could rest, she'd run and run and run, then she'd fall over, her breaths coming in fast and painful, listening for the very, very soft cracking or tapping of him.

Him finding her was always an inevitability; there was no point to stretching it out. She didn't know why she tried so hard each and every time. She didn't have the words to make herself understand. Words for freedom, that she only felt when she was blind and tucked into the smallest spaces she could fit into. Words for terror, when she knew her time was running out, heard his breaths and felt his presence coming closer and closer and closer until she just couldn't run anymore and he found her. Pain, hot, burning pain that always followed those loud, loud noises and no moving or you get it again, that, she'd never needed a word for.

It was the worst game, because when it started, it was the best, when she was running and hiding, before she needed to start listening, before she was found. She hated being found. Even when she knew it would happen, she still tried, and that was the worst, trying when she knew there was no point, for just that little bit of time, she'd always tried harder than anything else.

Then came the day when he brought her in front of someone else, and there was red and still and his eyes were fear then pain thennothing. Cass chose for herself to play the game then. She turned from his and she ran and ran and ran.

That time, there was no freedom; there was just run, and terror. There was no doubt she would be found again, just like all the other times, it took time for her to realize that this time was different. She couldseethis time. When she ran, it took time for the thought to enter into her mind that maybe this time she wouldn't be found.

She hadn't had the words for what she'd felt when she thought about that, but they hadn't been very good feelings, and some of them, sometimes, when she was alone and cold, sometimes she felt she wanted to be found.

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It's dark, but Cass can still see. The walls rise up high on either side of her. They're bright and colorful with words she can't read, but loves to look at.

Cass is hidden behind a mound of garbage, she listens, sucking in her breaths hard and fast, but very quiet, she's listening. It's hard, trying to pick out his sounds when there are so many more, in the loudness of a city that is never ever quiet.

It's been a while since Cass has tried this hard, felt this desperate to keep away. It's not a sound that gives him away, but the appearance of just the edge of a bright green boot tip. He moves, but Cass moves faster, she's gone before he's done with the annoyed noise he's letting out. Cass would have laughed, she had been when they'd started playing the game, but now is different.

She still doesn't have the words to explain why, but she has to run, run, run. He follows. Cass twists into the smaller spaces, remembers that he hadn't been able to follow when she's done that, but for some reason, this time, she does.

So she runs faster until she can't hear anything of him anymore, until she can't see him not matter how hard she looks. Then she opens her eyes wide and looks. It's the fluttering of yellow she's hiding from, but not what she's looking for.

This is one of the times she feels she wants to be found, but also not, being found is the worst thing.

Cass turns another corner, hears the steps coming after her and she moves up. Scales the colorful side of the building, her chest aching from the boom, boom, boom, of her heart.

At the top, she can see the buildings spreading out for miles around her. If he comes she'll be able to see it, she'll be able to run. So focused in seeing she doesn't hear, doesn't know he's coming until his shadow spreads out in front of her.

She's found.

It's all she can do to spin round to face him before he can grab her, she'd so tired and breathing is fast and hard. When she sees the bat, yellow and bright in front of her, her strike falters, she's so tired. It's nothimhim, it's not, it's just…

He's scared too, his body tight and loose at the same time, he's saying words when he reaches out to her, slowly, very slowly, and his voice is soft, she doesn't need to know the words to know what they mean.Worried. Confused. Afraid. Angry.Cass falls forward, her head resting against the bat as arms fold carefully around her.

Off to the side she sees the fluttering yellow against the green and red. Robin.Confused. Worried.

The want to know what happened, what made her run, but she can't use her words to tell them, so she shakes her head, feels the wetness building up around her eyes, trapped behind her mask.

Batman's hand rests against the back of her head. He waves with his other hand and Robin comes closer, slowly at first, then a little faster when she doesn't try to run.

"You're okay Cass?" Cass, not Batgirl. He's not asking, but he's not telling her either, trying on smile that doesn't look real at all.

It was just a game. A different kind of game than the one she hated. Not the same. It shouldn't have felt the same, but it did, and she's not okay. She shakes her head and presses it against the bat again.

"That's enough hide and seek for tonight." Batman's voice says, and he pulls back to look down at Cass's face, his is still screaming with worry, but she can see something else there too, a something she really saw on the other one's, onCain'sface. "I think Oracle has a bowl of chocolate ice cream for you at the clocktower, we should get there before it melts."Protective."Okay?"

Ice cream and Barbara. She's been found, but there's no pain or terror, just home, where she's safe.

"Okay." Cass whispers, the loudest sound her voice will let her make. She wants to go back home.

Batman nods once, and Cass stays tucked against his side the whole way there.


End file.
